The president and CEO of Readytech John Kevin Woodward were arrested Saturday at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York after arriving from Amsterdam.
Woodward was charged with the murder of Laurie Houts, a 25-year-old computer engineer who was found strangled in her car in Mountain View.
Woodward is now 58 years and, is being held without bail in New York. It’s not clear if he has obtained an attorney.
A passerby found Houts dead in her car on Sept. 5, 1992, near a garbage dump about a mile from her job. The rope used to strangle her was still around her neck, according to the district attorney’s office.
“Her footprints were on the windshield interior, a sign of her struggle with Woodward. Her unrifled pocketbook was nearby,” the news release states.
The investigation pointed to Woodward as the suspect but due to lack of evidence, the case was dropped until late 2020. detectives began re-examining the case and had items from the initial investigation re-submitted to the Santa Clara County Crime Lab for analysis, Mountain View police said.
In 2021, a crime lab and detectives were able to link “Woodward to the rope found around Ms. Houts’ neck using new developments in forensic science technology,” the DA’s office said.
Woodward faces up to life in prison if convicted.
